Top Jesse White Articles

West Side Democratic leaders today picked a onetime aide to former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger to run against indicted state Rep. Derrick Smith this fall.
The panel chose attorney Lance Tyson, who once worked for Stroger, over Chicago Police...

An Illinois House panel today concluded that there are "reasonable grounds" to proceed further with a disciplinary process against a West Side Democratic lawmaker charged with bribery, a move that eventually could result in his expulsion.
The special...

Indicted former state Rep. Derrick Smith was on his way Tuesday to writing a new chapter in Illinois political notoriety by regaining his House seat just months after being impeached and expelled over his arrest on federal bribery charges.
Smith declared...

Gov. Pat Quinn today signed into law a bill to kill the long-abused legislative scholarship program.
"Instead of scholarships going to those who truly deserve them and qualify for scholarships to go to college, too often the program was abused in a...

Drivers who illegally use handicap parking plates and decals soon will face stricter fines and penalties under legislation Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law today.
Starting Jan. 1, fines for unauthorized use of placards for people with disabilities will...

Gov. Pat Quinn joined U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill, today to finalize an agreement that will allow Illinois to receive roughly $2 million a year in federal funding to help restore and protect the Lake Michigan shoreline.
The Illinois Coastal...

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown has opened up a big lead tonight against Chicago Ald. Ricardo Munoz in the Democratic primary.
Brown had 66 percent of the vote while Munoz had 34 percent, with 72 percent of the precincts counted....

A Chicago Democratic lawmaker charged with bribery a week ago won decisively in Tuesday's primary, the first election under a newly drawn map that shook up House and Senate seats from the city to the suburbs.
Even before unofficial results rolled in,...

Propelled by support from top Democrats including Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis easily won the party’s nomination for a 10-year term on the high court Tuesday, topping her two closest challengers by...

Gov. Pat Quinn and other leading Democrats called today for the resignation of a state lawmaker from Chicago who won a House primary one week after being arrested on federal bribery charges.
The growing pressure on state Rep. Derrick Smith contrasts with...

SPRINGFIELD--The Illinois House opened a special investigation today into a Chicago Democrat charged in federal court with taking a cash bribe.
But Rep. Derrick Smith, a West Side Democrat, didn't show up.
Smith faces the first House probe since then-...